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News From The
Past

Abilene
Reporter-NewsMay 31, 1997

WWII
hero James Logan
Awarded Texas Medal of Honor

Highlights
Friday from the Capitol

AUSTIN (AP) - More than three
decades after creating it, state lawmakers on Friday granted the first
Legislative Medal of Honor to former Tech. Sgt. James M. Logan.

The 76-year-old also is a
recipient of the Medal of Honor granted by Congress, the Distinguished Service
Cross, a Bronze Star, Purple Heart and Italian Cross of Honor. He could be the
only living person eligible for the Texas award, according to state Rep. Tommy
Merritt, R-Longview, who helped push for the award.

The state award, created in
1963, requires a recipient to be a member of the Texas National Guard who has
performed acts of "personal bravery," regardless of his own life and
safety.

Logan, a Kilgore cattle farmer,
was called up from the Texas National Guard to the 36th Infantry Division in
World War II.

According to his award
citations, Logan on Sept. 9, 1943, led his company in a landing on a beach
near Salerno, Italy. The company had advanced about half a mile when it came
under machine gun fire.

Logan, then 22, continued
forward uncovered for 200 yards, killing three German soldiers and
successfully taking out two soldiers operating the machine gun.

He turned the gun on surrounding
German soldiers, sending them to cover. Logan also captured an enemy officer
and a private in the exchange.

On the same day, Logan killed a
sniper in a building who had taken shots at his company from 150 yards away.
He approached the building alone under fire.

"What Sgt. Logan did that
day was more than enough for even a million lifetimes," said David
Stroud, a historian at Kilgore College. "That is why we are here."